


The Sleeping Arrangement

by Ignicula



Category: God Eater (Video Games), God Eater 3
Genre: Fluff, Literal Sleeping Together, M/M, Paranoia, There aren't enough beds on the Chrysanthemum
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-08
Updated: 2020-04-08
Packaged: 2021-03-01 18:21:33
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,892
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23541511
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ignicula/pseuds/Ignicula
Summary: After a long day of fighting Aragami, escaping an ash storm, abandoning Pennywort and temporarily joining the crew of the Chrysanthemum, things finally come down to the question of where everyone is going to sleep. The answer takes a bit more problem solving than anyone anticipated but nobody minds it that much in the end.
Relationships: Hugo Pennywort/Male Protagonist
Comments: 2
Kudos: 53





	The Sleeping Arrangement

**Author's Note:**

> Has anyone else actually counted the beds in the dorms and realized there are too few? It's been driving me nuts for a while now, thus this fic.

It had been a very long few days in the lives of Hound Squad, but Luca could say with certainty that things were definitely starting to look up.

Honestly, the fact that there was an ash storm that hit Pennywort had been the cause for a lot of his worries, but now that it was over with and everyone had survived except for the bastards at Pennywort who abandoned them… they were finally getting the chance to relax in something like safety on board the Chrysanthemum. Sho was getting medical treatment, Hugo finally had a say in what happened to them and could therefore work to keep them safe… meaning  _ Luca  _ could work to keep them safe as well, and they didn’t even have to walk around with their hands cuffed.

That was honestly a foreign sensation to the AGE. He could still vaguely remember a time in which he could walk around unchained. It had ended not long after the calamity hit and his first family had disappeared into the clouds of ash. After that… He’d run, for a while, met Hugo. The two of them had struggled to survive out there as long as they could, which wasn’t long considering Hugo’s ash resistance at the time. He remembered dragging Hugo to a shelter and begging them for help, only for both of them to be enslaved shortly after their arrival. 

_ Even though that was my fault, Hugo worked his hardest to protect me back then, too. He was always so sure this day would come; the day we would finally be free again. _

Luca looks down at his hands again. 

_ It’s been a long time, but it’s finally here. _

“Still feels pretty strange, huh?” Hugo’s voice sounds behind him. Luca turns and gives a short nod. 

“I’m still not used to it. It’s the opposite of when we first became AGEs.” Luca confessed.

Hugo chuckles. “That’s true.” He stretches his arms above his head, clearly enjoying still having a full range of movement. “With any luck, this will be the norm from now on. Our contracts were probably destroyed in Pennywort after all, so now nobody owns us anymore.”

Luca can’t help but beam at that thought, the thought of finally not being one of those stuck-up human or God-Eater’s property as though AGEs were lesser than them. Now he was free to do whatever he wanted…

_ What do I even want to do, now that I’m free? _

_ Well, I only know how to do one thing anyways…  _ Killing Aragami. Surviving.  _ And considering what the world is like now… I doubt there’s much else FOR me to do…  _

Well that was certainly a good way to kill his mood.

“Hey, cut out the negativity.” Hugo admonishes him. “I can practically hear you thinking. We’re finally free, take a chance to enjoy it!”

_ He’s right.  _ Luca shakes his head to clear the thoughts. He’s about to speak, but what comes out instead is a yawn. He pauses, surprised by his own actions, but then the exhaustion sinks in.

“Long day, huh?” As usual, Hugo has to do most of the talking for both of them.

“Do you know where the beds are?” Luca asked. “I don’t remember if Hilda told us that or not.” His mind drifts back to the woman as he speaks.  _ Cold yet kind, stern yet still smiling. She’s got a lot of inner strength, even if I could probably beat her with both hands behind my back and hopping on one leg in a fight. I don’t know if we can trust her yet… or that Ricardo person, even if he was the first kind face I’d seen who wasn’t an AGE since I came to Pennywort. When Bull squadron was still around they told me about a whole ton of people who’d been tricked and taken advantage of by ‘friendly faces’. And Amy seems innocent now, but I don’t know enough about her to trust her. _

“Hmm… I think she said they were on the second deck down.” Hugo replied. “Sho is down in medical treatment, so he’ll probably have to stay in the medical room overnight. Lil and Marr are staying with him to keep watch.”

“Should we sleep down there too?” Luca asks. He doesn’t want to leave the kids alone in a strange place like this.

“They’ll be fine. These guys seem like good people; I don’t think they’d hurt them for no reason.”

“Yeah, keyword being “seem”.” Luca replied skeptically. “We’ve known these people for the better part of five hours.”

“And they dove into an ash storm to rescue us, provided Sho with free medical treatment no questions asked, negotiated with us and agreed to treat us as equals. We have a contract that both parties hold.”

“And if they take the kids hostage, they can make you hand that over and get rid of it.” Luca replied.

Hugo raised an eyebrow. “Luca, if they wanted us as prisoners, all they’d have had to do was re-cuff us as soon as we boarded and we would’ve acted like it was normal and went along with it.”

...That’s true. Luca looks away, but Hugo’s not done talking yet. “I know it’s hard to trust them after what we’ve been through, but the fact of the matter is that if we live in constant paranoia we’re going to exhaust ourselves and probably get ourselves killed while we’re at it. It doesn’t look like this Ash Crawler has an escort besides us, so we’ll be on the field against aragami. These are the people we have to trust to have our backs.”

“I get it.” Luca says, irritated by the lecture and annoyed by Hugo’s refusal to take his side. Every word out of the other’s mouth is true, however, and that knowledge calms his temper… a little. It doesn’t help his annoyance at the knowledge that he’s wrong.

“Sorry.” Hugo backs down. “In any case, we might as well go check out where we’re staying.”

The two walk over to the elevator, and the doors close behind them. Hugo hits the button for the second floor. 

When they emerge, Luca is more than a little surprised to discover that their assumption was wrong and that Sho is standing in the hall with Lil and Marr. Keith and Zeke are poking their heads into one of the rooms, seemingly curious.

“Sho?” Hugo asks. “Weren’t you in medical?”

“The nice doctor lady said that I could stay with you guys, but I have to go back to get a checkup in the morning.” He replied.

“Doctor?” Luca perks up. Was it Amy, or another crew member he didn’t know about? He didn’t think Hilda was a doctor…

“She’s the one who guards the door in the storage. She said she knew how to treat me, so Ricardo guarded it for her while she gave me my medicine.” Sho replied. 

“So, anyone know where we’re sleeping?” Hugo asks the whole room. “I don’t know the specifics, but…”

“Girls are over there,” Zeke points to the room on the left side of the hall, “And we’re staying in here.” He wanders back into the room. “Whoa, are these real mattresses?”

Okay, Luca  _ has  _ to see this. A mattress wasn’t exactly on his list of most important things to have memories about before the Calamity, so it was hard to remember the feeling of anything but sheet metal beneath him as he slept. He’s pretty sure that to anyone else his speedy response would have been even comical, but he’s beyond caring.

There are real  _ beds  _ in here. He can’t remember the last time he had a real bed to sleep in.

_ Maybe Hilda and the people of the Chrysanthemum aren’t that bad after all. _

“Wow!” He hears Marr’s voice behind him as the kids enter.

“The girls’ room is better.” Lil’s voice sounds, but at the same time it reminds him of something.

“They’re separating us?”

“Luca.” Hugo gives him a rather exhausted look, as if  _ begging  _ him to drop it. Luca pauses, really wanting to argue this fact, but sighs.  _ This is treating us like equals,  _ he reminds himself,  _ Female and male God Eaters and Humans don’t sleep together. Well, they’re not supposed to, or so I’ve heard. This is normal. _

He drops it. Hugo’s relief is almost palpable.

“It’s a good thing the girls  _ do  _ have another room,” Zeke says, claiming the top bunk. “I don’t think there are enough beds here for everyone.”

“There weren’t before either.” Luca pointed out. “I just shared with Hugo.” They’d done that since they were kids.

“No, but these are really narrow. I don’t think you’ll both fit.”

“There are six of them.” Hugo replied. “If you count Ricardo, there are six beds.”

“Yeah, but one’s covered in tools.” Keith replied. 

“I could take a couch.” Luca says. They look just as comfy as the beds do anyways, and he’s not going to deprave one of the others of a bed.

“We could just move the tools.” Marr replies. “Problem solved.”

“But where do we put them?” Keith asked. “...Should we go ask Ricardo?”

As if the words had summoned him, the man walks into the room. “Did someone say my name?”

_ He appeared! Where are they spying on us from?  _ Luca’s head snaps around wildly, but in the end he doesn’t see any surveillance.  _...A coincidence, then.  _

“Oh, perfect timing.” Keith says. “What do we do with all these tools?”

“Why do anything?” He asks, then he pauses and looks around the room as if doing a headcount. “Well damn, I’m used to being the only one who uses this room. Look, I don’t have anywhere else to put this. I’ll have to get a storage unit for it, but I won’t have an opportunity to until we get back to the port.”

“I can go and sleep in medical after all.” Sho volunteers.

“No,” Hugo replies. “You can sleep here. We’ll figure something out…”

“I’ll sleep on one of the couches.” He looks around and claims one that doesn’t look too cluttered, sitting on it. It’s soft and squishy, and he’s already content with his choice. “You guys can take the beds until…”

“No you’re not.” Hugo sounds exasperated. “Can we move the tools to one of the couches?”

“Even if I do that now, the bed will be covered in grime and oil. You won’t want to sleep on it.” Ricardo says, seemingly remorseful for it.

“Well, nothing we can do about it in the meantime. Which bunk is yours?” Hugo asks.

“The bottom one, under the tools.” Ricardo says. “Whenever there are guests, it helps to have that one so if there’s an incident and the tools fall, they hit me and not one of them.”

“Then I guess I’ll stay here,” Zeke says on his perch above the tools.

“Sho, Marr, which bunks do you want?” Keith asks, then pauses. “Or… actually, we’re two short, not one.”

“I’ll go sleep in the…”

“Sho and I can share!” Marr says loudly, drowning out Sho’s suggestion. “We’re still pretty small after all.”

For some reason this is pretty familiar. Luca wonders where he’s seen it before.

“Then…” Sho looks the bunks over. “Middle bunk.” 

“Alright!” Marr climbs up enthusiastically.

“I’m taking the bottom bunk…” Keith says. “But we’re still one short.”

“We can share.” Hugo says. “We did that back in Pennywort, too.”

Ricardo sighs. “Alright, next time we’re at the port, I’ll make sure to get a shelving unit  _ and  _ some more beds, sound good?”

There’s a simultaneous agreement. 

“So, when’s lights out?” Zeke asks with a yawn. “Normally Pennywort turned off the lights in the cell by now…”

“Whenever you feel like it.” Ricardo responds.

Luca blinks, surprised.

“Just… whenever we feel like it?” Keith asks.

_ Oh no. _

“Keith,” Zeke says warningly, “No staying up all night tinkering just because you can.”

“Eh? But why not?”

“Oh boy.” Ricardo groans. “Let’s just call it ten o’clock, you bunch of infants.”

“You have a  _ clock  _ in here?” Lil asks, finally speaking up.

“There’s one in the female dorm too.” Ricardo responds.

“I’m going to go explore!” She turns and runs out the door.

“Oh, wait for me!” Marr calls.

“Me too…” Sho heads off after them.

“...They’re sure energetic, aren’t they?” Ricardo asks.

“You’re not really going to enforce that, are you?” Keith asks, referring to the ten o’clock limit.

“If you keep us awake ‘tinkering’ all night or barge in here at some ungodly hour once you’ve finally tired yourself out ‘tinkering’ and wake all of us up, I am not responsible for what happens to you.”

Keith gulps. “Noted.”

Luca knows it was said in good humor, but he can feel his hackles rise. Zeke looks like he’s in much the same condition, and Hugo has a rather sour look on his face as well. They all remember a time when that threat was all too real.

“I was  _ joking _ ,” Ricardo says. “It was a  _ joke _ , I’m sorry.”

The verbal confirmation helps, but he thinks the situation might have been fully diffused by him yawning. 

“Well, I guess you two are top bunk.” Keith says, then pauses. “Actually, switch with me. If you fall it’ll be nasty.”

“True enough.” Hugo replied. “Thanks for the concern.”

Keith slips out of the room, likely to go find the God Arc storage. Luca sits down on the bed and examines it.

_ This really is pretty narrow… will we really both fit? _

Oh well.

He’s about to try and find a way to lie down that will leave Hugo space as well when Ricardo speaks up. “That reminds me… do you have any pajamas?”

“Pajamas?” Hugo asks. “...I vaguely remember having some before the calamity, but…”

“I’ll have to tell Amy to take you clothes shopping next time we reach a port.” He says, walking out of the room. “For now, might as well make yourselves comfortable. You’ve had a long day.”

_ Hmm… make myself more comfortable… _

He takes off the cloak and stashes it under their bunk for now, and after a second also takes off the heavy combat boots. He feels like getting the bed dirty with the grime on his shoes would be a waste. Hugo does the same with his coat and shoes.

“You two are just going to sleep?” Zeke asks.

“I’m pretty tired.” Luca admits.

“Same here.” Hugo replies. “You?”

“I’ll stay up a bit to keep an eye on the kids for you then. Besides, I have to drag Keith back here after he decides to stay up all night despite the rule we just put in place.” He jumps down from his own bunk and heads out the door, leaving the two of them alone for the moment.

_ Nice and quiet. _

It was a bit bright, though.

Luca slipped back into the bed, noticing the covers.  _ Real sheets… It’s been so long since I’ve seen these that I almost forgot what they were entirely. _

He draws them over himself and scoots inwards as close to the wall as he can. Said wall is cool, and it’s not as cramped as he thought it’d be.

Well, until Hugo scooted in next to him. Their backs are touching, unlike how they did when the two slept in one of the large beds of sheet metal. There was always just enough space for them to sleep without being shoved together like canned sardines like this.

“This is a bit cramped, huh?” Hugo asks.

Luca considers it for a second, and then snuggles into the soft pillow, mattress, and blankets. “I don’t mind it. It’s better than the sheet metal.” Nice and warm, too. He’s used to always being uncomfortably cold when he sleeps. 

“Is that so?” Hugo chuckles. “Well then, goodnight.”

O

Luca wakes up later, when the lights are off. He can hear the soft breaths of Sho and Marr just a bit above him, and Ricardo is snoring. For a moment he thinks that;s what woke him up until he hears Zeke and Keith having a whispered argument, several ‘owws’ from Keith obviously indicating that Zeke had dragged him here by the ear. 

The door closes, and he can see the shadow of Keith moving towards the bunk even despite the lack of light in the room. The sound of ladders being climbed sounds, and then the thumping noise of shoes being dropped on the ground.

“Hmm?” Hugo stirs behind him.

“Oh, sorry.” Keith whisper-yells. “It’s nothing.”

Hugo goes back to sleep remarkably quickly, and soon Luca is the only one left awake.

Unlike usual, though, he doesn’t feel the urge to get up and move around. Normally he would try to look out the window until either he felt tired again or the sun rose, but now not only does he lack a window, he’s also trapped against a wall by Hugo and feeling oddly lazy. 

He snuggles back into the covers, blinking sleepily.  _ This is nice. _

_ Maybe… The Chrysanthemum isn’t that bad of a place to be after all. _

O

In the end, they do not get another bunk the next time they stop by a port, nor do they invest in a shelving unit. 

Nobody seems to mind all that much, Luca least of all.

**Author's Note:**

> Trying to write this while the game was running in the background was interesting. I've never seen Google Drive lag quite like that before, but in the end it worked out. I hope you all enjoyed!


End file.
